NYC is under water: A collection of shocking photos of the City via Twitter

A walk through of Tweets about the flooding in NYC this evening. Just horrifying photos. And when these photos were taken, Monday night, flooding wasn’t even at its worst yet. New Yorkers are reporting growing power outages – a friend in Chelsea just lost power. Check out the first image below, power is gone in the Village.

John AravosisFollow me on Twitter: @aravosis | @americablog | @americabloggay | Facebook | Instagram | Google+ | LinkedIn. John Aravosis is the Executive Editor of AMERICAblog, which he founded in 2004. He has a joint law degree (JD) and masters in Foreign Service from Georgetown; and has worked in the US Senate, World Bank, Children's Defense Fund, the United Nations Development Programme, and as a stringer for the Economist. He is a frequent TV pundit, having appeared on the O'Reilly Factor, Hardball, World News Tonight, Nightline, AM Joy & Reliable Sources, among others. John lives in Washington, DC. John's article archive.

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392 Responses to “NYC is under water: A collection of shocking photos of the City via Twitter”

You can’t make references to one event, but add all storms, droughts, heatwaves etc. yes its gobal warming. As much as I’d like to baste Bush he’s not alone in responsibility. The warmer water in the ocean has made for two halloween hurricanes in two years. The Hudson used to freeze over between NY and NJ and ice boat races would go to Bear Mountain. But now you rarely see a chunck of ice floating down in February. Not a conincidence.

you are absolutely right and in my attempt to make a point I erred. I’ve been through so much misery and sorrow in my life, and worked disaster relief in devastated thirid world countries with dozen or hundreds of dead strewn around that I may have become inured to educated citizens in NYC doing things like standing under trees and touching electrical wires all of which are avoidable. I did not think events like this would happen to this extent in the US, and was dismayed by the lack of attention given to preparedness and education in a wealthy nation that should have known better..
Also, I was dismayed at the lack of attention given to countries where devastation can’t help but happen. So for all of this I apologize. But I would stress the importance of supporting the survivors and remembering lessons learned.

18 people died here in NYC, man. Not exactly small potatoes. I mean, look at that pic of the FDR!!! That’s 15-20 feet of water! Sure people had warning, but the world isn’t perfect. Sometimes unpredictable things happen, and people end up in the thick of it by accident. Not to mention that this kind of flooding hasn’t happened in decades, and unless you’ve been through things like this before, it’s very difficult to know for sure if you’ve taken the proper precautions. Try to show a little empathy along with that compassion of yours.

I think it is just harder to imagine surviving such disasters for those who live in first world countries and areas hardly hit by disasters because it is not within their experience. Having to move their stuff to the second floor may shock them because they never thought it possible. For someone who has seen her handful of challenges (I hail from the Philippines) that’s what makes our people unfazed by these occurrences. We do cry for those that have passed, feel for those who have lost much, but overall we try to keep a brave front and readily rebuild – some even with a happy face. That is why I sometimes think privileged people have it harder – because they are so unused to the challenges that life brings. Having it easy quite often has its downside.

Doesn’t surprise me at all, Samiz. Interesting sidelight on the anti-Walker demonstrations in WI and Wanker’s heavy-handed actions against public workers union: He exempted firemen and the police unions and in turn they supported him over Tom Barrett. When the demonstrations were under way those same firemen and police union members stood in solidarity with their union brothers and sisters, as did many of the Green Bay Packers individually and as an organization.I’m proud of being a transplanted Badger/Cheesehead.

Let me start off by saying that Yes I am a horrible person, and for that I apologize.

I will also say that if you are stupid enough after decades of people telling you that if a hurricane hits New York it will flood, and if after days of people showing you on teevee a giant storm coming your way that they are telling you is going to flood New York, and despite the fact you have resources and options and choices you then are stupid enough to park your car in an underground parking garage, and the storm hits and the city floods and your car gets wet, then I have to say that yes I actually do feel compassion for you. I truly do. I am not being sarcastic. And I have compassion if you had a first floor apartment that got wet and for a while you thought omg I might have to step up to the second floor in order to save my life. Okay, so that was a little sarcastic, but I still have compassion. I also have compassion for everyone who was worried whether their friends and family would be safe. But that is selfish of me since I have loved ones there. I also have compassion for all of the New Yorkers whose lives are going to suck in the coming weeks just trying to live without electricity and accomplish simple things like going to work because the people who should have had a better plan didn’t. That really sucks.

Although I will admit I have more compassion for anyone in Breezy Point Queens who lost their home to the fire or to someone in the Caribbean who didn’t have choices or options and who lost their house or their life and nobody cared. Of course, they never had electricity so they won’t miss it so there’s that.
Now one can’t expect 1st world people to wring their hands in worry over 3rd world people dying since that is normal and part of what makes the 3rd world 3rd. But maybe if 1st world people did care, then they would’ve known the storm already had the blood of eighty five people on its hands, and they would’ve taken it more seriously. SandytheKillerHurricane(tm) coming at you sounds a little more menacing than simply Sandy the Tropical Storm.

So yes, compassion all around, and no damning the yuppies even as a rhetorical flourish. But I guess I am a relativist in that I have a sliding scale of compassion depending on the circumstances. So yes some compassion for the fat cat who waited out the storm in his luxury penthouse apartment drinking DRC and now has a hard time hailing a cab, but a little more for the indigent farmer who lost his wife and children.
Like I said I am a horrible person.